Informational meeting held at Kings Point where residents protested proposed charter school near their community.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
June 3 isn’t exactly a holiday, but there will be plenty of residents celebrating after finding out the proposal for the future charter school was scrapped by the City of Tamarac.
“The issue of primary concern was providing geographic preference to Tamarac residents,” said Public Information Officer Elise Boston. “While Doral Academy assured us this was doable, because we were in a groundbreaking situation we felt strongly that this issue needed to be clear in state statutes.”
Tamarac Talk brought this fact up early on – that unless Doral was able to change state law, or unless the City were to hold the charter, then Tamarac residents would not get first choice at seats.
Boston said that when the House adjourned early, all pending bills died. “For this reason, negotiations with Doral Academy have been terminated at this time.”
Len Ronik, President of Kings Point, told Tamarac Talk that he figured that scrapping the plans was a way for the City to save face. “In the end, we would be victorious and they wouldn’t.” He said that if the school would have been built, the residents of Kings Point would have “tied them up for 30 years” with litigation.
The proposed Doral Academy Preparatory School would have been built on seven acres of public space in the Sports Complex, but first they would have been responsible for moving the skate park, basketball and tennis courts to their new location.
The whole idea of the charter school proposal started mysteriously in January 2014 as item number seven on a City workshop agenda – however it wasn’t even on the agenda. The City never even informed the residents who would have benefited, or been affected, by a new school. Nor did they offer a community meeting before an RFP was issued. There was also secrecy to the media of any updates between the school and the City. Even the mayor wasn’t being truthful when he told his constituents he couldn’t legally discuss the issue with them.
Ronik is just thankful it’s over and residents can go on enjoying their lives without all of the stress in their backyards.
“Our residents will be overjoyed when they find out because they didn’t need this type of tension,” he said. “This was a school that belonged in Parkland. They had the wrong City.”
